The Opera organizes its grand event of integrated arts entitled Faust Ball on 14 February 2015. Similar to the first ball in 2014 entitled Silver Rose Ball, its main mission is a charitable cause: the guests contribute to the purchase of an ambulance for the Hungarian National Emergency Ambulance Service. Special guest of the ball is international superstar soprano Angela Gheorghiu.

At the end of January, between two regular concerts, the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra gives another one in memory of the victims of the holocaust. The winter concert series feature renowned conductors as well as young, award-winning soloists.

As the first premiere in 2015, the Hungarian State Opera produces The Rake’s Progress by Igor Stravinsky. So far it has only been featured in the repertoire of the Opera only once – it was put on stage 35 years ago. In the production by director Ferenc Anger two international guest artists make their Hungarian debut on 18 January 2015.

It has been exactly 130 years since the Budapest Opera opened its gates on 27 September, 1884. The Hungarian State Opera commemorates the anniversary of the opening with crowds in period costumes, an extraordinary gala concert, the premier of a film, and the publication of a historical book.

Following last year’s MozartLateNight, this is the turn of two French composers to shake things up as their one-act operas take us to the exotic world of the Orient. Bizet’s Djamileh is a steamy tale, set on the banks of the Nile, about a slave woman who falls in love with her captor, while Saint-Saëns’s La Princesse Jaune (The Yellow Princess) is one about a Dutchman’s delirious vision of a Japanese phantasm. Strictly for over 18s only!

Blood Wedding

Events

Old sweetheart abducts wife from wedding and, escaping death and
wedding reception, reaches the forest, where groom and raptor kill
each other. Girl is disappointed as can be, and even a mother of one of
the dead chaps gives her a hard time.

The Moon shines through the room window.

Its light is disquieting to the Mother whose Son is about to get married. Her husband and her elder son have been murdered, and now her last comfort is about to leave the house. Her excessive anxiety borders on jealousy. Her hatred towards the rival family, her recurrent fears imprison her in her own cell, and not even her Son’s love can jolt her out of this state of obduracy. Her suspicions about the Bride leave the Mother sleepless.

The Neighbour’s visit cannot ease her persistent fears. The Mother’s inquiries, her brooding over the past are made worse by the tidings the Neighbour brings. The Bride was formerly betrothed to the Leonardo whose relatives killed the Mother’s husband and eldest son. Hearing this, the Mother is unable to contain her implacable hatred.

In the meantime Leonardo has got married. However, he is not a happy man. Rocking their baby to sleep, his Wife sings of a black horse that has fallen in the river and cannot climb out onto the bank, ‘...its blood-foaming main, a silver dagger between its eyes...’—all concealed bitterness. The Wife senses that her husband has a lover, and her mother confirms her worst fears.

The Son asks the Bride’s hand in marriage in terse words. They strike a bargain. When for a moment the Mother is left alone with the Bride, she describes marriage as being no more than a man, a couple of children, and a thick wall between her and the rest of the community. When all are gone, the Maid confesses she knows about the Bride’s lover. Although at first she decided to ignore the nightly clatter of a horse’s hoofs and the identity of the horseman alighting outside her window, the fact that the secret visitor was Leonardo could not escape her attention.

The wedding day arrives. Leonardo is first: he wants to speak to the Bride in private. His probing words reopen unhealed emotions, but their passionate encounter is ended by the arrival of the wedding guests. The glamour of the wedding overshadows their thoughts; anxiety and jealousy get in the way of cloudless pleasure.

The passion-kindling Moon seals their fate. The lovers heed the call of blood and run away on horseback, embracing. The Mother’s suppressed thirst for revenge explodes. She and her son drive the whole wedding party after the fugitives, and the man-hunt begins.

The forest—a surreal world of concealment, a place where nature provides shelter for the fugitive. The Moon’s blood-soaked crescent menacingly shines through the foliage of the trees. The forest-dwellers, the woodcutters are doing their job, felling lives—forty-branched oaks—when the time is right. Heading the pursuers is the Bridegroom. Who is he chasing? He is left alone. He stumbles into Death in the form of his own Mother. She will show him the way.

Leonardo and the Bride take refuge in the forest, although they are both aware they cannot stay there. The Bride is reluctant to accept Leonardo’s offer ‘to go where no one else can follow’. She would prefer to return to disgrace; from a dream-world to reality. The Moon illuminates the forest paths. The two men come face to face. A duel with knives follows.

‘Women! As fate had ordained, two men in love killed each other with a little knife between two and three o’clock.’

The widowed Bride lives on in disgrace, ostracised by her community. Dispossessed of the meaning of life, the Mother is left to live on in solitude. The dirge is sung for them also, not only the dead; the death-knell is sounded for them, too.